In Finnish, due to the lack of the [z] sound, it is called tseta /tsεtɑ/ (or tset). In Chinese (Mandarin) pinyin the name of the letter Z is pronounced [tsɛ], although the English zed and zee have become very common.

History

The name of the Semitic symbol was zayin, possibly meaning "weapon", and was the seventh letter. It represented either z as in English and French, or possibly more like /dz/ (as in Italian zeta, zero).

The Greek form of Z was a close copy of the Phoenician symbol I, and the Greek inscriptional form remained in this shape throughout ancient times. The Greeks called it Zeta, a new name made in imitation of Eta (η) and Theta (θ).

In earlier Greek of Athens and Northwest Greece, the letter seems to have represented /dz/; in Attic, from the 4th century BC onwards, it seems to have been either /zd/ or a /dz/, and in fact there is no consensus concerning this issue. In other dialects, as Elean and Cretan, the symbol seems to have been used for sounds resembling the English voiced and unvoiced th (IPA /ð/ and /θ/, respectively). In the common dialect (κοινη) that succeeded the older dialects, ζ became /z/, as it remains in modern Greek.

In Etruscan, Z may have symbolized /ts/; in Latin, /dz/. In early Latin, the sound of /z/ developed into /r/ and the symbol became useless. It was therefore removed from the alphabet around 300 BC by the Censor, Appius Claudius Caecus, and a new letter, G, was put in its place soon thereafter.

In the 1st century BC, it was, like Y, introduced again at the end of the Latin alphabet, in order to represent more precisely the value of the Greek zeta — previously transliterated as S at the beginning and ss in the middle of words, eg. sona = ζωνη, "belt"; trapessita = τραπεζιτης, "banker". The letter appeared only in Greek words, and Z is the only letter besides Y that the Romans took directly from the Greek, rather than Etruscan.

In Vulgar Latin, Greek Zeta seems to have represented (IPA /dj/), and later (IPA /dz/); d was for /z/ in words like baptidiare for baptizare "baptize", while conversely Z appears for /d/ in forms like zaconus, zabulus, for diaconus "deacon", diabulus, "devil". Z also is often written for the consonantal I (that is, J, IPA /j/) as in zunior for junior "younger".

In earlier times, the English alphabets used by children terminated not with Z but with & or related typographic symbols. In her 1859 novel Adam Bede, George Eliot refers to Z being followed by & when she makes Jacob Storey say, "He thought it [Z] had only been put to finish off th' alphabet like; though ampusand would ha' done as well, for what he could see."[3]

Blackletter Z

A glyph variant of Z originating in the medieval Gothic minuscules and the Early Modern Blackletter typefaces is the "tailed z" (German geschwänztes Z, also Z mit Unterschlinge) In some Antiqua typefaces, this letter is present as a standalone letter or in ligatures. Together with long s, it is also the origin of the ß ligature in German orthography.

Usage

In Italian, Z represents two phonemes, namely /ts/ and /dz/; in German, it stands for /ts/, though it can be pronounced /tz/ or even /z/ in rapid speech; in Castilian Spanish it represents /θ/ (as English th in thing), though in other dialects (Latin American, Andalusian) this sound has merged with /s/.

In Finnish, Z is pronounced /ts/. Officially the sound [z] would appear in certain select loanwords such as azeri, but in practice [z] is heard and pronounced as /s/ in such words. The use of Z to denote /ts/ is discouraged in official language, as in the case of pitsa ("pizza").

In Chinese (Mandarin) pinyin "z" is pronounced [ts] (unaspirated pinyin "c" - "halfway" between beds and bets). In romanised Japanese Z stands for both [z] and [dz] (which are allophones in that language).

The International Phonetic Alphabet uses [z] for the voiced alveolar sibilant. Early English had used (and to an extent, still does use) S alone for both the unvoiced and the voiced sibilant; the Latin sound imported through French was new and was not written with Z but with G or I. The successive changes can be well seen in the double forms from the same original, jealous and zealous. Both of these come from a late Latin zelosus, derived from the imported Greek ζηλος. Much the earlier form is jealous; its initial sound is the [dʒ] which in later French is changed to [ʒ]. It is written gelows or iclous by Wycliffe and his contemporaries; the form with I is the ancestor of the modern form. At the end of words this Z was pronounced ts as in the English assets, which comes from a late Latin ad satis through an early French assez "enough". See English plural.

Z is also used in English to represent (/ʒ/) in words like azure, seizure. But this sound appears even more frequently as s-before-u, and as si before other vowels as in measure, decision, etc., or in foreign words as G, as in rouge. The IPA character chosen for this sound in the nineteenth century is confused with another, much earlier obsolete character, yogh.

Z is also used in writing to represent the act of sleeping. It is used because human snoring often sounds like the pronunciation of the letter.

Few words in the Basic English vocabulary begin with Z, though it occurs in words beginning with other letters. It is the most rarely used letter in written English[4] (but is the most frequently used of the consonants in the Polish language[citation needed]).

Z was abolished in Icelandic in 1974. In its place s is used — as in the word íslenska "Icelandic (language)", where formerly the combination of the d of Ísland and the s of -(i)sk was spelled z.

Z (pronounced Zed) is a 1996 real-time strategy computer game by the Bitmap Brothers. It is about two armies of robots (red and blue) battling to conquer different planets. A sequel, Z:Steel Soldiers, was published in 2001.

Contents

Difference between versions

There are few differences between the Z DOS version and the Z 95 version. Most of all Z 95 was made much more compatible with Windows 95 which was becoming more and more popular. Also some more levels were added to the so-called Expansion Kit. The Z DOS version has an interface for loading the game as its first step. In Z 95 the interface is still there but modified and is just a normal interface using APIs of Windows 95 without an eyecandy button. Z Dos version is much slower, which affects the game play, whereas the Z 95 version improves the speed and lets the game feel like a real time strategy field.

Atmosphere

The game is filled with personal, somewhat humorous touches. If a mission is failed, the central unit tells the player: "you will fail, you are a dummy". When a robot has nothing to do, they begin to relax in the sun, play cards, smoke cigars, hunt rabbits, penguin (in the Arctic area), and other animals in the fields. The robots' attitude and expressions are very human.

Worlds

Combat takes place on several planets, with 4 missions on each. When one is successfully captured, a space ship transports the robot army to another. Worlds are divided into the following types:

Desert: a dry, open and scarcely vegetated environment, in which units have trouble moving around freely. The player encounters rivers and islands as they progress through the battles on this planet. Some territories are controlled by flags on islands.

Volcanic: a much more hostile environment. Lava flows are an impassable barrier.

Arctic: a frozen world of snow and ice spanned by glacial rock formations.

Jungle: a verdant world of menacing swamps and impenetrable chasms. Crocodiles in the swamps eat robots hanging around the mud.

Logistics

The supply logistics are simpler than the system used in traditional RTS games, such as the Command and conquer series: the more territories are owned (flags held), the faster the factories work and the more factories are available. Once a unit type is selected, production repeats automatically until a different unit type is selected.

The logistics issues centre more around getting forces to where they are required, as vehicles cannot cross water and even robots cannot cross lava.

Units

Which unit types can be produced depends on the building type (Robot or Vehicle factory), building level (number of stars displayed on the building) and game level. Fixed guns can be produced at either type of factory, while the Fort can produce all types of units, only limited by the game level. Higher level units are slower to produce.

Game AI

The AI controlling each unit's reaction to commands is not very complex, so robots frequently walk directly into enemy fire. Units make this mistake whether they are controlled by a human or a computer player.

The AI controlling the CPU uses multiple strategies. Though usually the CPU deploys its starting units in a specific way, it sometimes uses different tactics, and the CPU responds to different circumstances in different ways; no two games are identical in Z. The AI is quite aggressive, attempting to overthrow the player before he can get his production on the way, using fast, powerful attacks as well as sneak attacks. The computer is more powerful in the beginning of a battle, since the second unit it produces in every of its factories takes half time to produce (all other units take full time to produce, though).

The AI is not very efficient at managing its units though; it often leaves certain territories poorly defended, and often spreads its forces rather thinly across the battlefield. Usually, if the player manages to hold off the CPU's first attack waves, the CPU can't successfully take enough territories back to turn the tide in its favour.

External links

Zed section on the Official Bitmap Brothers website

ZZone "Official" Zed fan site linked by Bitmap Brothers

Z at The Bitmap Brothers Tribute

Home of the underdogs, Zed review

Vogon forum Thread , Zed under Linux

Strategy Planet, Zed fan site

Z-Zone, Running Z on Windows XP using DosBox

Z-Zone, Z95 for Windows XP without emulation

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